EASTHAMPTON -- A soon-to-open medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation facility plans to hire dozens of workers and hopes to be doing business by the end of the year.

Hampden Care Facility will host a job fair Nov. 4, and will eventually hire dozens of workers, said Ian Kelly, operations manager, and Dan Cunningham, cultivation director for the facility, located within the Keystone Mill at 122 Pleasant St.

Most jobs will initially pay $12 to $15 an hour. People are needed to cultivate marijuana, to harvest and package buds, to help process "cannabis-infused products," to work in the retail shop and help with security.

"There will be range of entry-level jobs," said Kelly.

Cunningham, Kelly and Springfield-based attorney Stephen M. Reilly, head of compliance for the group, met with reporters Thursday along with Easthampton Mayor Karen Cadieux.

For the cultivation positions, which pay $15 an hour, they are looking for people with a background in farming or horticulture and a "genuine interest in cannabis" and its medicinal properties.

"You don't have to be a person who partakes," Kelly said. "And you don't need experience growing cannabis. But we are looking for people who have a passion for the plant."

Plants are already growing under lights at the 38,000 square-foot facility after the state authorized the grow operation and the city's building department issued a partial occupancy permit.

Hampden Care Facility gained a special permit from the Easthampton Planning Board in March 2016 and will operate under the city's medical marijuana zoning ordinance.

Cadieux said that Hampden Care first approached her in 2015 and were participants in one of her very first "business roundtables." At the discussions, people who want to open businesses meet with the mayor and city departments to coordinate the development process.

Having all the stakeholders in one room helped Hampden Care understand exactly which permits, licenses, and inspections would be needed, and helped bring efficiency to the process, said Reilly.

"It's not like this everywhere," he said. "Usually you're on your own."

Hampden Care Facility also plans a "rebranding" and will soon emerge with a new, catchy name, the men said. They said the dispensary will offer a "premium experience" with exposed brick and attention to detail. They are working with the locally owned Oxbow Design to create the retail space.

"We wanted to be in a municipality that wanted us," said Reilly. "That building has a lot of character. We're close to I-91. And Easthampton is an up-and-coming place."

Reilly declined to say how much money Hampden Care is investing in the facility, saying it's "a moving target." He also declined to say how much marijuana they would grow every year.

But he said three years of MassWorks grants, procured by the city's planning department, made the local investment possible. The grants directed millions of state dollars to well-lit parking, buried utilities, and attractive landscape design behind three mixed-use mill buildings on Pleasant Street.

"It's very exciting for our community," said Cadieux, who added that the local jobs will be welcome.

In Massachusetts, medical marijuana dispensaries must grow their own cannabis. Hampden Care marijuana grown in Easthampton will also be sold at the company's planned medical dispensary in Springfield, Reilly said.

Asked whether Hampden Care will expand to offer recreational cannabis, Reilly said that depends upon how local and state regulations play out. The Easthampton Planning Board is in the process of crafting new zoning rules, and the state's Cannabis Control Commission is expected to issue its own requirements.

Retail marijuana shops are set to open in Massachusetts by July under a reworked legal marijuana bill passed by the state Legislature. Voters in the state approved medical marijuana in 2012, and recreational marijuana in 2016.

Reilly said Hampden Care will negotiate a host community agreement with Easthampton for any recreational facility, and Cadieux said she supports the full 3 percent local option tax allowed by law when such shops become a reality.

But for now, Hampden Care Facility will operate purely as a medical marijuana facility.

As for the upcoming job fair, Kelly and Cunningham said it will be held at the Zing! Table Tennis Center at the Keystone Mill, and that they plan to offer coffee and doughnuts. They said anyone who has already applied online should stop by, as well.